Bulgaria Yuzeirovi Brothers Effort to Found Muslim Party Fails

Ali Yuzeirov, one of the notorious Yuzeirovi brothers, who want to set a Muslim party in Bulgaria, walked out of the Shumen hotel wearing a red Turkish fez, but has been asked by the police to remove it. Photo by BGNES

The Muslim party OTOMAN will not be established for the time being because the founders, the notorious Yuzeirovi brothers, failed to gather the needed 500 supporters.

The information was announce Friday by one of the brothers, Ali Yuzeirov, who complained that many buses and followers on foot were on their way but could not arrive to the meeting because they were stopped by the police.

It is also reported that about 72 Roma, all under the age of 16, have attempted to join the party OTOMAN.

The area around the hotel “Shumen” in the northeastern city with the same name has been sealed off by the police due to fears of clashes between Muslims and Bulgarian nationalists.

Ali Yuzeirov walked out of the hotel wearing a red Turkish fez, but has been asked by the police to remove it.

Weeks ago Yuzeirovi informed about their intentions to create the party OTOMAN, an abbreviation which stands for “Union for Tolerance, Responsibility, Moral, and Alternative Progress.” Yet the party's name bears uncanny connotation to the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria's bitter past under Turkish dominion.

Many in Bulgaria see the decision of the wannabe politicians to found their party on April 2, which is Good Friday for Orthodox Christians, as a provocation. The brothers have responded to the accusations by saying that they have chosen that day because of the traditional Friday's Muslim prayer and that every Friday is sacred for Muslims.

Initially Yuzeirovi said the establishment of OTOMAN will begin with a prayer at in the famed Tombul Mosqu, but the Muslim community in Shumen declared they will not allow the brothers to use the mosque. The meeting was then scheduled to take place in the local “Shumen” hotel.

The far-right, nationalist Ataka party and Shumen citizens, organized through Facebook, staged Friday a protest rally against the founding of OTOMAN. The City Hall informed the demonstrators have not obtained an official permission.

Earlier, in order to prevent clashes between rival groups, the Shumen Mayor, Krasimir Kostov, banned all rallies or manifestations. Kostov claims that some of the founders of the new party are residents of Shumen, currently living in Belgium and France, and are financed by Muslim extremists.

Yuzeirovi insist that OTOMAN’s main goal is to promote religious and ethnic tolerance. Their similar initiatives in the summer and fall of 2009 have been slammed by many commentators as attempts to stir ethnic and religious tension and a test to the stability of Bulgarian democracy and of the cabinet "Borisov."

In the fall of 2009, the two brothers erected a monument of the Unknown Turkish/Muslim Soldier near Targovishte, which was torn down by the authorities after court action.

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